Auditory Brainstem Response: Its Place in Infant Audiological Evaluations

Abstract

A hotly debated issue among pediatric audiologists today revolves around the value of the auditory brainstem response (ABR) as an effective approach to the audiological assessment of neonates and young infants. Healthy skepticism and continued reliance on traditional behavioral procedures are due to disappointment in past "objective" methods, frequently heralded as the solution to all audiological problems. Initial enthusiasm for cardiovascular or respiratory responses, or the " la te" auditory evoked potentials utilized in the 60's, was rapidly tempered by equivocal findings and methodological problems occurring in precisely those patients most in need of assessment: infants and multihandicapped children (Gerber, 1977; Picton, 1977). Therefore, many clinicians are hesitant to abandon infant behavioral protocols they have spent years developing. On the other hand, while our skills in evaluating infants have improved, the neonate at risk and needing assessment today has unfortunately changed. Consequently, behavioral test protocols effective in a term neonate will fall short when confronted with a premature "graduate"